Struggling Readers in the Midst of the Pandemic

In all subject areas, the primary key to understanding lessons is none but reading literacy. For a child to grow in knowledge and skills and become successful in life, he or she must have the basic ability of reading. Several pieces of research found out that children who learn to read at an early age have greater potentials to academic success compared to their counterparts. Otaiba & Fuchs (2002) posited that reading skill learned early and quickly is considered as superior and will likely result to academic excellence. On the other hand, Haager & Windmueller(2002) reiterated that poor reading skills lead to a lower overall academic achievement and first grade seems to be a critical development period.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak which started about a year ago, it created gaps between the teachers, students, and the teaching-learning processes. Though Self Learning Modules (SLMs) has been adopted as an alternative means to cater to the needs of learners, some areas of learning needs are not met by such modality, one of which is the need for intervention of struggling readers.

While teachers, whenever possible, visit the learners at their home for assistance and scaffolding, their time is limited and may not be able to visit all the students in their time of availability. That is why para-teachers and teacher volunteers are there to aid, however, with the protocols and guidelines mandated by IATF, home visitations are controlled.

Prior to the pandemic, the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Cordillera Administrative Region, through its reading assessment tool, revealed the results of the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI). Of the 53, 372 who took the post- test in English from Grades 4 to 6 for School Year 2018-2019, 301 were non-readers, 9,090 were classified as frustration readers (from 14,682 in pre-test); 23,267 (from 19,781) were instructional readers; and 18,673 were independent readers (from 12,736).

On the other hand, 305 were non-readers in Filipino out of the 39, 655 who took the Filipino reading test. There were 11,521 identified as frustration level readers (from 19,519 in the pre-test); 23,317 identified as instructional readers (from 21,985); and 22,156 (from 16,147) identified as independent readers.

Accordingly, the 2018 Phil-IRI Manual describes an independent level reader as one who function on their own with almost perfect oral reading and excellent comprehension. Meanwhile, an instructional level reader is one who profits the most from teacher-directed instruction in reading, and frustration level reader as one who finds reading materials so difficult that they cannot successfully respond to them. Finally, a non-reader is one who is unable to recognize and sound out letter-sound connections for single consonants.

With the given data, this could imply that mediation between pretest and posttest, as per DepEd Order No. 45 s. 2002, otherwise known as Reading Literacy Program in the Elementary School where the policy “Every Child A Reader”, has slightly taking effect until COVID-19 came to picture.

However, previous study revealed that despite several flagship programs and reading intervention and innovative reading strategies being implemented, still the result of PHIL-IRI on frustration level is still prevalent. The alarming reading status of pupils necessitates intensive reading innovation that would help them to improve their reading abilities.

Now that COVID-19 is here with us which changed our ordinary courses of life including the way we teach, the instructional materials that we use, methodologies, strategies, and so forth, we are faced with problems on how we can intervene on issues of struggling readers, how we can raise learners’ performance and their development since reading is an inherently social activity. Moreover, school heads and teachers are left with how they can motivate parents and stakeholders on school’s program or project on reading literacy of learners.

It is a common knowledge that many learners in this pandemic do not have proper access at home to the same tools that allow them to learn effectively in classrooms. These include books on their level, teacher interventions, devices, peer interactions, and socio-emotional development. Therefore, the burden falls greatly on parents and guardians as they are the ones mostly guiding and assisting their children with their Self- Learning Modules. Be that as it may, not every parent or guardian of pupils studying at Balong Elementary School has finished basic education for them to be able to execute what was expected of them. Further, some parents who lost their jobs due to this pandemic must find ways to feed the family, and thus, most of the time, children are left alone with their modules at home.

While there are several suggestions on the web on how to strengthen reading potentials of struggling students, technology- dependent interventions are less likely applicable in our area since internet connection is not consistent and that not every household has smart phone or laptop, let alone internet access.

Though collaboration of the school, parents, stakeholders, and the community is presently active, first step to solving the abovementioned issues may start with the continuous encouragement and support to learners for this will lead to boosting the confidence of struggling readers. Celebrating small successes keeps the focus on what they can do instead of what they are not yet able to do. Research by Cambria and Guthrie (2010) indicated that confidence in oneself is more closely linked to achievement in school than any other motivator.

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